> I don't believe that it will break many programs. How many programs
> produce large *input independent* output, that is not already
> literally in the source, in a caf with a long life-time?
That sounds like a description of all the animation programs in Paul
Hudak's School of Expression book and there's plenty more examples
like that.
[I haven't tested whether these programs do leak space with the
modified compiler - my point is that there is a large class of
programs with exactly the characteristics you describe.]
--
Alastair Reid
ps I think your CAF restriction is a bit of a red herring - Koen's
modification to make his example leak in GHC (which GCs CAFs) shows
that the leak happens as long as the relevant thunk isn't collected.